BBC iPlayer arrives on Sky+

The BBC iPlayer is now available to Sky+ customers, opening the door to thousands of hours of fresh high quality TV content on demand.

Sky announced the availability of BBC iPlayer on its Sky+ service in a post on the Sky corporate website. While the partnership might seem unlikely to some – the two companies are, after all, rivals – Sky for its part reveals that the move was made “in the spirit of striving to deliver the best TV experience we can.”

For the BBC’s part, this opens up the BBC iPlayer service to 6.7 million Sky customers, and means that the BBC iPlayer is now available on every major UK TV platform.

The BBC iPlayer has been “fully and seamlessly integrated into the award-winning Sky+ experience.” This means that it can be located within Sky’s electronic programme guide menu.

You can browse BBC content by day, or from a bunch of categories like history, food, comedy or drama. Once you’ve chosen a BBC programme to watch, it’ll be downloaded directly to your Sky+ planner to be watched at a time that suits you.

The BBC iPlayer is now available on a staggering 650 platforms and devices, including home consoles like the Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. It attracted two billion requests for programme content in 2011, while in September 2012 alone it saw 200 million requests. The big hitter that month was everyone’s favourite Time Lord, Doctor Who, with 2.2 million requests.

In addition to its own On Demand service, Sky’s UK terrestrial catch-up service is now almost complete, with ITV and Five already on board. Only Channel 4’s 4oD service is missing, but even that is set to change. According to Sky, 4oD will be “arriving on the service next year.”More TV Recorder & Set Top Box News >